Note: This blog post duplicates a LinkedIn Article I shared on March 21, 2021. The pictures have changed, but I wanted to capture this significant milestone in my personal blog history.
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“Be gentle. Be kind – you never know what someone is going through.”
If you follow me on social media, I hope you notice my encouragement for kindness, gratitude, and helping others. This is, to the core, an important part of who I am and the value I work tirelessly to bring to the world.
Today, I feel blessed to share a personal post and explain how our personal lives do indeed impact our professional lives. Rare (or naïve?) is the person who can compartmentalize these in their life. In my life, I have been blessed to deeply integrate, by necessity, my personal and professional life. As a result, I am an enhanced professional and person.
Last week, my wife Terri published a book titled “The Focused Fight: A Childhood Cancer Journey from Mayhem to Miracles.” She tells the story of our son Ryan, and our family’s, fights through childhoodcancer and young adult secondary cancers. Ryan is a 5x cancer survivor who has inspired us and countless others since his original leukemia diagnosis on October 17, 1996. Terri chronicles our family experience from her mother’s perspective. She was affectionately the “mama bear” that tirelessly managed and advocated for Ryan while I was working day in and day out to support our family and provide health insurance coverage.
http://bit.ly/TheFocusedFight_TerriTomoff
How do the personal and professional combine? Anyone who has had a life disruption (see quote above) knows too well the stresses of managing a career with personal demands that cannot be placed on a lower priority. Terri’s support of Ryan and our daughter Olivia was her only priority…24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Her perseverance and dedication allowed me to do what had to be done professionally. Yet…many families walking our path often lose or must leave their jobs because of the overwhelming responsibilities at home. The reality of what could happen, just financially, is devastating…on top of the unthinkable medical concerns that are ever present at home.
The professional tie-in? I was blessed beyond measure with my employers’ compassion, care, and support. The worst of the treatment YEARS was from 1996 through 2004, which started only ten weeks after moving our family from Cleveland, Ohio, to join Washington Sports & Entertainment. Mr. Abe Pollin and everyone I worked with supported me unconditionally while I balanced my professional and personal demands. The experience was an excruciating balance because my work in finance was deadline sensitive, but I had the best support that could be imagined…and genuine care for the “person” first. My perspective on life and work has been forever impacted in the way that Terri and I consider “post-traumatic growth.”
